Peculiar
by Dokkaebi'sBride
Summary: Monkey is the youngest most skilled mechanic known this side of the apocalypse. She is also 34.72% cyborg. Fixing things for people that come her way, she gives them their best shot at surviving the apocalypse. Little did she know that a westward-bound survivor group would come along and make her realize that maybe it was time for someone to fix her.
1. Cinderella's Slipper

**A/N: So I've jumped on the wagon guys and decided to add to our numbers :D**

 **This will be set sometime around mid season 1 and will largely consist of my own set of scenarios, with a little bit of brushing over on the episodes from the show, so you have some new stuff to read.**

 **I have no idea why I decided to go with a cyborg, I guess I just thought why not have a badass chick with some metal limbs in the apocalypse? x]**

 **I hope y'all like her**

* * *

At times like this Monkey wished that she hadn't stripped the circuit board from Pops' cellphone for spare parts. With all these Z's around her, and nowhere near enough ammo with her, she wished she hadn't been so cocky into thinking that she could last so long solo. She knew she should have let Pops come with her, but no she just had to tell him to keep watch of the shop in case anyone came by in need of help while she went to pick up her parts from Ron.

Her BMW was currently parked two streets down, and she was weaving through shadows and trying to avoid the swarming hoard of zombies that were trailing around in the streets. As she settled into a crouch behind a yellow beetle, she tucked a disheveled strand of hair behind her ear.

With the hot rays of sunlight beaming down on her she silently shuffled out of her jacket, tied it around her waist and rolled up the hem of her jeans to free her calves. Her body temperature had already decreased before she could even think of starting to sweat, but still she followed through with the mundane actions to allow herself a sense of normalcy. It was way too hot outside for her liking, the heat always seemed to slow her down; her left leg would feel heavier than it should and her right hand would suffer from pins and needles.

Monkey was just glad that her sense of smell was busted up, rotting flesh and summer heat was bound to be revolting.

Her fingers combed through her hair again, tugging through the knots with frustration.

"The thing's i'd do for some shampoo." Monkey hummed under her breath, targeting Ron's apartment block and planning an easy route towards it.

But of course, it was the apocalypse; and that meant that nothing was ever easy.

Red flashed in front of her eyes and a curse pushed past her gritted teeth. In her dash towards the next stationed car; an ugly looking orange Camaro with black stripes, she had been spotted by zombies. Monkey blamed her left leg which caused her to limp slightly off-kilter.

Fumbling with her tool belt she pulled out her last screamer-a sonic device her and Pops had made to get rid of Z's-and she frantically launched it as far away from her as she could, plugging her ears instantly as the head splitting shriek emitted from it.

Monkey relaxed her tensed muscles a fraction, as the Z's diverted their path and turned around, drawn to the high pitched noise.

That just left her with a few strays in her path to gift with a silent bullet.

Moving forward she made her way to the front of Ron's building, pulling up the places blueprints to establish all of her escape options.

Then, holding her breath and her gun, she pushed on the door and slipped inside.

The first thing she noticed was the silence.

Her heartbeat jumped and she warned herself to keep calm and ignore the unease that was starting to settle in her stomach.

Everything was okay, Ron had to be quiet because noise attracted zombies.

Leaving the desolate lobby of the apartment block she made it up the flight of stairs by way of the railing. Under her footing the stairs tended to squeak like mating mice and she didn't want to draw the attention of any Z's. Besides, it was much more fun this way too.

Dropping her feet lightly on the ground she unhooked the gun from her tool belt as she heard shuffling.

"Ron is that you?" Monkey whispered as softly as she could, though she knew the sound was far too light to belong to the bear of a man.

Turning up her audio interface she recognized the sound as scampering and a frown furrowed her brow.

"Hugo?"

A bark sounded out in response and she rolled her eyes and snorted. Of course Ron's little rat of a dog would still be alive in an apocalypse. She had hoped the irritating thing had been fed to a zombie since the last time she had visited. Obviously not.

The scampering came closer, and she knelt down as the small shadow emerged from the doorway.

Monkey was too late to register that the grizzling bark was off, and her vision flashed a warning red as the chihuahua came into view.

"Shit!" She gasped as the undead dog launched towards her, rapidly firing her gun at it only to miss several times as the small creature moved rather fast, despite it's non-living status.

Tiny teeth sank into her boot and she screeched in shock dropping the gun and waving her leg wildly to remove the monstrosity from the studded leather.

"Get off me you disgusting rodent! Get off!" She hissed shaking her head as words appeared across her vision.

SPIKING LEVELS OF ADRENALINE

Grabbing the gun again and pulling the trigger once more, Monkey found with dread that she was all out of ammo.

Just as she had collected herself enough to reach for the wrench in her tool belt, the zombiefied dog had bit down hard. Sparks flew from her foot and fried the mutt, giving her the much needed opportunity to strike it's skull. Liquid silicon seeped into her boot, squelching as she put pressure on the heel and stepped around the officially dead corpse. She shook away the DISCONNECTING alert that flickered over her vision.

Monkey hobbled into Ron's apartment, praying to every God, Spirit and Force of Nature, that there were no more Z's on this floor to deal with.

"Ron?" She whispered again. Her eyes fixing on the disheveled state of the room and filling her with dread. The glass coffee table was broken into thousands of fractals, papers of his unintelligible script and android schematics scattered everywhere. She would have thought it normal if not for the spray of blood and blackened ichor.

"Ron it's the Wrench Monkey.." Raising her volume as she heard movement from his office she gingerly pushed the door open wide with two fingers.

Ron was hunched over his desk, the shiny titanium plated foot sitting in front of him as he peered down at it.

"Oh thank god Cam-" Monkey found her relief short lived as the sound of her voice made the man lift his head up and he looked at her through dirty blonde hair.

Her vision was blinking red and her stomach knotted with dread.

He was dead.

He was _undead._

She had no bullets to grant him an easy mercy but she knew she had to do it somehow. Ron was a friend, she couldn't let him suffer like this.

Besides, she really needed the foot that was right in front of him too.

Chewing her lip she slowly nudged along the edge of the wall to the other corner of the room, remembering the pistol that was taped under the ledge above the fireplace.

The fireplace that just happened to still be burning.

Immediately she was captured by the orange flickering embers and her breath hitched. She was shaking, her heart pounding violently as her vision started to distort.

SPIKING LEVELS OF ADRENALINE.

The warning was lost behind a screen of fog, and then there was a crash, shocking Monkey back into the room as a shadow fell in front of her and an undead arm reached out for her.

She screamed as Cameron-no not Cameron- the Z, latched onto her with a vice like grip, it's hands bone crushing, bruising and leaving an imprint on her skin, it's teeth gnashing near her neck, and dripping a mixture of saliva and blood onto her skin.

Her stomach flipped as she brought her hands up to it's jaw snapping it shut, and she had to push down bile as the bones crunched under the crushing pressure of her metal fingers.

"I'm so sorry Ron." She breathed out through a distressed pant, pushing his head all the way back with as much force as she could, hearing a sickening snap. His arms dropped from her waist and her forearm, and she shoved the Z away, fumbling for the gun and grabbing it to finish the job.

Aiming for the centre of his skull she raised a shaky hand.

"Cameron Sinclair, I give you mercy."

Monkey dropped, done for a while.

Her adrenaline had spiked, then faded, then spiked again and then faded and now she was left feeling hollow.

She'd never had to mercy a friend before.

This wallowing feeling that had drained everything from her was a new one, grief was a new one.

Breathing out a heavy sigh she lifted her fingers to tug at her hair. But seeing them, Monkey noticed the filth, the oil stains, the blood; and lowered them immediately, wiping away as much of it as she could on her jeans.

She knew she had to get moving, the gunshot and her screams had alerted the attention of the Z's in the building, and they would be making their way slowly but surely to the source of the sound. Carefully she got to her feet, tucking the pistol into her tool-belt and scooping up the titanium foot that had fell to the floor when the desk had been flipped.

Monkey examined it, grasping it ever so lightly as she checked for any dents and then concealed it safely in her backpack, wrapping it in her jacket and a spare t-shirt.

Eyes landing on the window she avoided the wreckage, avoided looking at Cameron and pulled it open. She winced as it squeaked and carefully climbed out, easing herself onto the fire escape and then made her way back to her BMW as silently as she could despite her struggling limp.

A relieved sigh pushed through her lips as she rested on the hood of the car, pulling off her boot and almost pulling off her foot too in the process.

The thought to keep an eye out for more Z's became secondary as she looked down at the loose appendage and tugged hard to free it from it's socket.

Monkey knew she probably should have waited till she was back at the shop to deal with this, it was risky business out in the open when Z's could appear at any moment, but the foot had been irritating her none stop for months. Now she had a replacement and the right tools to fix it; she just couldn't wait.

Another hard yank and she hissed, sparks flying and singing her fingertips. She jerked away and the punctured foot lay limp, dangling over the edge of the car by a series of tangled colored wire.

With another sigh, she scanned her surroundings briefly; finding them vacant of the living and the undead, then pulled her stained fingers through her hair, tying it into a lopsided knot on top of her head.

"Right. Now let's get to work." She muttered, plucking out a fuse puller from her tool belt.

Carefully, working as fast as she could, Monkey disconnected the wires that still linked her foot and ankle. Sparks sputtered each time causing her to wince and grit her teeth.

With a tug of the last wire the foot fell to the gravel with a clatter.

A gunshot rang out in the distance, she gasped and hurtled forward and almost crashed to the ground, forgetting about her lack of a left foot.

Steadying herself she let her eyes survey her surroundings, cursing her impatience. Z's were coming. Lots of them.

But they were dropping down like flies quicker than they were heading towards her, and her brow furrowed in confusion.

"Where the hell are those bullets coming from?" She wondered, following the shooting line to the rooftops searching for the mysterious sniper.

Monkey, didn't manage to find them before the sound of car tires reached her hearing, and she quickly maneuvered herself into her car, tossing her tools into the passenger seat. Starting up the engine and hitting the gas, she headed off before the vehicle she had heard could get near her. She'd been gone long enough anyways, Pops was probably already starting to worry.

Flickering her gaze to the rear view mirror she caught something glinting on the road, in the sunlight; her little rusted metal foot.

* * *

"Hey Pops!" She called as she hopped through the door, ignoring the angrily narrowed eyes that were staring back at her.

The corners of her mouth tugged up as she flopped onto the worn out lime green sofa, sending a pile of scrap metal and scruffy machine schematics to the floor with a clatter.

Meeting the redheads glare with dimples and eyes that smiled like sunsets she stuck out a tongue as he pushed his glasses up his nose.

"How many times do I have to tell you to just call me Alroy." He groaned and she laughed.

"You have no idea what I had to do to get this damn thing so hurry up and attach it will ya, I hate being limbless." Monkey stated, carefully placing the shiny steel plated foot in her lap.

"A simple please would suffice." The redheaded man responded in an almost musical note as his Irish accent laced his words.

Monkey didn't respond to him, instead stroking the unattached limb lovingly and cooing. When he moved away from his desk with a box full of tools in hand and lifted her metallic leg onto his lap, she handed him the missing extremity. Settling into the cushions she watched his freckled face as he worked.

"Had to put down Ron." She muttered awkwardly, gnawing on the inside of her mouth as Alroy hesitated for a moment before pretending she hadn't spoken. He went back to aligning the correct coloured wires.

"I know he was like a brother to you, i'm so sorry." She whispered, shuddering at the memory of the sickening feeling in her stomach as she came face to face with the monster that had replaced such a gentle soul.

Frownlines marred the pretty path of freckles on Alroy's forehead.

"Oh I got some help from a mystery sharpshooter. Didn't get the chance to see them though. Maybe they'll head this way?" Monkey rattled on as Alroy focused on the job at hand, only knowing he was listening to her by his shift in expressions. His lips had contorted into a thin line.

"What have I told you about being careful out in the open?"

She rolled her shoulders back, groaning at the spine-popping crack her joints made.

"It was just one guy, or chick, they might not have even seen me take off a metal foot anyways! I mean they sniped some Z's and didn't shoot me." Monkey stated matter of factly, folding her arms behind her head.

"What if they saw you? What if they tell people they saw you and someone tries to take you?" Alroy tightened the last screw and Monkey swivelled around, setting her foot on the floor and wiggling the toes. They felt a little stiff, but far more comfortable than the last metal limb. Turning her head to face him she smirked, and lifted one shoulder in a shrug to hide her concern.

"I'd like to see them try."

* * *

 **a/n: so just a little introduction of my oc before she officially meets the gang, what did you think? Did you like her? Did you hate her? Did she freak you out?**

 **Hit me a review and let me know, I'd love to hear from you guys.**


	2. Glitches

**A/N: Thanks to you guys who reviewed followed and favourited!  
Good to know you guys are liking my little cyborg, there's plenty more of her and the gang in this chapter, so read on! **

* * *

She tore through the night in her newly coated Mitsubishi evo, windows wound all the way down so she could feel the outside.

While Monkey had been away collecting her new foot, Alroy had fixed up the vehicle nicely and of course she just had to take it for a spin while she went to find their drone that was on the fritz; it had suddenly decided it wanted to change its course before crash landing and short-circuiting.

Alroy hadn't let her out till dark; zombies were pretty much inactive then, and they'd be especially sparse due to the cold, nighttime climate. With her new foot still needing to fully sync up; he and she knew it was her safest option.

Tongues of curling pale blonde hair blew around her face, licking at the sharp planes of her cheekbones, caressing her collar bones and wrapping around her neck like a silky scarf. It was a cold and crisp night, grey storm clouds stagnant in the sky.

From her seat in front of her steering wheel she shivered.

The speed, the cold air and the roaring hum of the engine and the static energy up above made her skin tingle. This was what freedom felt like.

She let out a gleeful laugh and pushed harder on the gas.

A lone zombie staggering onto the road and stumbling over its own feet in the distance, caused her to slow down to a stop. As fun as it would have been to mow down the Z, her Mitsubishi had just been given a new pristine lick of white and Monkey didn't want to dirty it.

So instead she pulled a Chinese ring dagger out of the glove box, twirling it around her finger as she left the vehicle and began walking the half-mile distance towards it.

Her fingers curled through the grimy strands of hair at the nape of its neck, tugging hard to expose the underside of its jaw and stabbing upwards under its chin; while she twisted her body in the opposite direction to avoid the spray of blood. As the dead weight of the Z fell to the floor Monkey watched it, her eyes drifted to the floor then flickered upwards at the blackened sky.

The storm was starting to spur to life, a rift in the clouds causing rain to drizzle down in a fine mist, slowly building up into ricocheting droplets of water. For a moment Monkey forgot herself, closing her eyes and embracing the bitter cold. Then as the numbness started to seep into her skin, making her teeth chatter and her shoulders tremble she sighed.

Her eyes opened and the world came back to her and she realised that although it had only been a few moments-not even two minutes- she was already a soggy and shivering mess.

That drone had crash landed not far from here though hadn't it? She'd only have to be out in the rain for a short while longer before she could head back to Alroy and indulge in fluffy pajamas and a hot chocolate. Wrapping the flimsy material of her cropped jacket around her thin frame she new it was a futile attempt to keep dry from the rain. Her shirt and jeans were uncomfortably soaked, sticking to her skin heavily. Her metallic appendages were starting to stiffen.

A light flickered in the distance, fissures of white in the purplish black sky hitting the ground, followed by a booming echo. Lightening and thunder. And it was getting closer.

A long string of profanities escaped between trembling teeth.

An electrical storm and here she was a human sized magnet.

"Head back to the car." Monkey muttered to herself, turning on her heels.

To shield her vision from the rain she tilted her head towards the ground, trying to ignore the harsh conditions surrounding her.

An echoing rumble sounded nearby, followed by another and another, getting closer and closer as she moved forward, shaking the earth beneath her feet. It sent her tumbling to the ground and splashing into an ice cold puddle. Monkey grazed her palms against the gravel as she used them to break her fall, and then brought them up to her face; a soggy mess sat in a puddle as she inspected them.

First her left, scuffed and stinging with small chunks of gravel embedded into the slightly bleeding skin. She scowled, flicking away the small stones with her thumbnail.

Then her right, not pained like the other but still scuffed and silver instead of red, where the titanium prosthesis was showing through under her flesh.

Immediately she rummaged through her pockets, pulling out woolen gloves adorned with little snowmen; then covered her hands in them. They were soaked like the rest of her clothing but at least they concealed the damage.

Monkey tried to pull herself back up to her feet but the lightening was interfering with her programming diagnostics and she was staggering like she was intoxicated.

Then, making her absolutely certain she had the worst luck at all; forks of lightening pinpointed and struck her, sending Monkey into the darkness with a scream.

* * *

The group groaned as the truck spluttered, wheezing like it was a middle aged heavy smoker before it completely came to a stop. Since it was a common occurrence during their travels across the states to get to California, they had long since stopped worrying when it did so.

But of course Murphy was constantly complaining, even though everyone was annoyed by the sudden breakdown in the middle of nowhere at the height of a storm.

10k followed Warren and Addy out of the truck to escape the noise, briefly watching as the two women moved to the front of the truck and pulled up the hood, the younger holding a flashlight to give them much needed light. A rod of lightning struck the ground in the near distance, flashing in his peripheral vision.

He turned, lifting his rifle and peering through the scope as a shape in the distance caught his eye.

"Guys?"

He called, features pulled into a frown as he started walking away from the vehicle to get a better look. The two women ignored him though, too busy caught up in fixing up the truck; it probably didn't help with the thunder swallowing every sound either.

Another flash of lightening struck closer illuminating the path and allowing the young sniper to finally notice what the shadow was- a Z and a girl?

Both the nearness of the lightning strike and the sight of the girl caused him to jump backwards, eyes wide and his jaw slack. He stuttered as his words got stuck in his throat, and spun around to Warren and Addy and then to the others inside the truck, wondering if they could see the girl too.

"Guys!"

He called again, this time with more urgency and Cassandra stuck her head out of the window of the truck, looking at him questioningly.

"There's a...girl on the road... she's not moving!"

"What?"

This time everyone heard him and they peered around and out of the truck squinting in the darkness.

As Warren approached him he pushed his rifle into her hand so she could see for herself.

"Dead Z and a girl." She confirmed, handing the rifle back with a nod. "She's got some nice wheels too." Warren noted, the Mitsubishi evo looked almost brand new; extremely rare in the circumstances of the apocalypse. It had been taken care of, protected.

"Let's check it out, if she's bit she needs mercy. Mack, stay with Doc and Murphy."

Doing their best to ignore the storm; 10k, Cassandra, Warren and Addy fastened up their coats and moved forward.

They stopped at the Zombie first, taking note of the wound under its jaw, and the remainder of blood that hadn't already been washed away by the incessant rain. surveying their surroundings for anymore stray Z's they found it clear.

"10k, Addy, check the car." Warren ordered, cocking her head in the direction of the vehicle parked further up the road.

Addy swung the Z Wacker over her shoulder skipping forward and 10k lifted his rifle and made to follow.

Walking past the lifeless girl he couldn't help but stare.

The girl was slumped limply on the ground, eyes closed so her thick lashes dusted against high cheekbones. Her mouth was parted in a small 'o' shape like she was sleeping. She almost looked peaceful, though there was a slight furrow to her brows like she was experiencing a bad dream.

She was soaked to the bone too, her hair clinging to her face and sprawled around her in a halo of silvery tentacles clinging to the floor. There was no movement of a breath, he noticed but she didn't seem to be bleeding out from anywhere and if she was bit, or if she had died due to exposure wouldn't she have turned by now?

He knew the time it took someone to turn was varied, but it never took as long as this.

But then he remembered he had seen her before, in the last town they had stopped in to raid supplies. _How could he forget?_ She had been sitting on the hood of a BMW when he had scoped her out...and watched as she pulled a robotic foot away from her leg.

Was this girl even human? Where there more of whatever she was?

In a world riddled with zombies it wouldn't surprise him whatever the answer was.

10k hadn't realized that he'd stopped moving until Addy had jogged over to his side and said "Nothing in the evo but a bunch of tools and a bunch of books."

"Oh my god is she-"

Cassandra stood over the girl, not wanting to touch the lifeless body, and so Warren knelt down gently, a grim look on her face as she curled her fingers around the girls right wrist. Her skin was a sharp and frozen cold, making Warren retract her fingers on instinct due to such a stark contrast in body temperature.

"I'm not getting anything." Warren shook her head with a sigh, returning to her feet.

"Were going to have to mercy her before she turns."

"Why hasn't she turned-"

Cassandra's words had trailed off as she looked behind Warren, and 10k heard a "huh?" come from Addy as his own eyes widened.

The pale haired girl's hand twitched, her eyelids fluttered and her mouth moved as she groaned "ouch".

Her eyes were a pale silvery colour in the night; and the pale silvery coloured eyes were very much alive.

They were also staring right at the group.

* * *

Monkey felt an uncomfortable pulsing sensation, she felt disconnected somehow, like there were parts of her swimming all around in the air attached to a thin fiber of thread that was being stretched and pulled; threatening to break. She focused on gathering herself together, or what was left of herself anyway. Monkey could feel herself being drawn back in, slowly but loosely getting sewn back together.

REBOOTING COMPLETE scrolled across her vision and her skull ached.

Two women loomed over her in the darkness and when she pulled herself into a seated position and turned; she noticed two more people, a girl with red hair and a boy.

All of a sudden a kaleidoscope of colours danced across her vision. She shook her head; rattled.

"Hey are you okay? What's your name?"

One of the two women in front of her said, which one she wasn't sure but even so she looked up at them, or around them rather. There was a feverish and static energy that overflowed, disconnecting and connecting all around her- around them, too and she realised with dread that her optobionics was on the fritz. She frowned pressing a hand to her temple and whimpered.

Her right wrist lay limply in her lap; she couldn't move it.

"Are you okay?"

The boy spoke from behind her and she twisted her torso, looking at his troubled face.

"Are you?"

Her eyes danced between the two women, and then the red haired girl and then back to the boy. They were all on edge, eyes widened and narrowed, fixed on her form and then meeting each others, communicating without words; looking panicked. But he looked at her differently, more like he was trying to figure something out. _Did he know what she was?_

But then maybe she was just imagining it, with her damaged optobionics Monkey couldn't tell.

"What's your name?"

The dark skinned woman- the oldest one of the group around her asked again, and Monkey groaned; the sound was tinny and echoing in her ear; her audio interface was messed up too apparently.

"You're too loud."

"What does that even mean?" "Too loud?"

The red head and the pretty young one in front of her spoke at once, the overlapping sounds making her whimper again and one of them apologized.

How long had she been out for? Checking to see if her net links were functioning enough to access her data logs she found it had been 32 minutes since she had been forced by lightening into a system reboot. Alroy was going to be pissed-No, he was going to kill her and never let her outside ever again like some kind of apocalyptic Rapunzel with more metal and less hair.

She had to get back to him and get herself fixed up as soon as possible. But as she attempted to get back to her feet she realised that her left leg, as well as her right hand was dead weight. _Just perfect, her prosthetics were fucked up aswell._

Angrily, she vented out her frustrations by clenching the frizzy strands of her hair and squeezing them in her functioning fist to strain the water; a look of concentration on her face.

For the meantime the shower of rain had slowed down into a barely noticeable drizzle.

"Your name?"

The woman had asked again, this time loosing patience and she snapped her head back up still angry.

"Why would I tell you my name? What would you do with it?"

Monkey had caught them off guard with her sudden hostility and almost felt apologetic.

"We're just being polite." The woman with the dark skin had said in an annoyed tone with an eyebrow raised.

"Polite or not I don't like giving my name to people I don't know, and especially the ones I don't want to know."

A snort came from the redhead behind her, and then the group were all exchanging looks, having another conversation without words.

Monkey huffed in irritation, she was glitching, she had a migraine and the parts of her flesh that where connected to metal were starting to itch and ache. She didn't want to be around people, she just wanted to be back home and get fixed.

So what if these people were trying to be nice, Monkey wasn't in the mood for it.

"Look; thank you for your concern but you probably have somewhere to be so go right on ahead, I'll be fine."

Monkey waved her arm, gesturing towards the groups vehicle but they made no move to leave, the older woman in front of her planting her hands on her hips. The pretty one was rubbing her arms to remove the chill.

"You were unconscious in the middle of a storm and you had no pulse."

"Well i'm pretty sure my hearts beating, so go on ahead and go about your night without me."

There was noise coming from the truck, and although her audio interface was malfunctioning she could tell it was a complaint.

"I'm obviously inconveniencing you."

The boy had moved from behind her as the women had turned towards the truck (one of them shouted 'shut up Murphy'), his eyes dropped down to her limp wrist and leg before he muttered something to them.

Holding her breath she hoped he hadn't just told them she was a cyborg; Monkey was pretty sure he knew though she was clueless as to how, hadn't she been as careful as possible? _Was any metal showing now?_

Looking down at her leg, it was still concealed by jeans and military boots.

"We're not leaving a girl who can't move her leg out in the rain to die of hypothermia or pneumonia."

Monkey bristled, narrowing her eyes accusingly at the boy for noticing her predicament and telling the others.

"I'm not going to die of hypothermia or pneumonia. And I can move my leg just fine. I'm just taking a rest."

A dreadful lie, and it didn't fool anyone.

"Well you can _rest_ -" The older woman stressed the last word, giving Monkey a pointed look to know she wasn't buying what the girl had said. "-In the car while we take you home."

Then as an afterthought she added. "You have somewhere or someone we can take you to?" To confirm that there was actually somewhere for the girl to be and she wasn't all on her own.

Monkey finally let out a defeated sigh. She just couldn't shake these strangers with a hero complex could she?

"Yeah, I got someone and somewhere. Not too far away."

The group visibly relaxed as she relented and allowed them to assist her.

"Good, then lets get you home."

Reluctantly Monkey handed over the keys to her evo, using her good hand to fish them out of her pocket and toss them towards the red head who begged to drive it.

Monkey had learned her name was Addy, when the dark skinned woman said it with a cluck of her tongue before heading back to the groups own vehicle; probably to tell the remaining passengers what was going on.

The boy and the pretty girl with the brown eyes wrapped their arms around Monkey, hoisting her up onto her feet and easing her weight over to the evo and into the backseat of the white vehicle. Monkey bit her lip the whole time, embarrassed because she probably weighed a ton and they wouldn't have expected it from her small frame. She refused to look at them to see if they were struggling, but they voiced no complaint.

The brown eyed girl turned around in the passenger seat to introduce herself as Cassandra, then the red head reiterated that she was called Addy; and all the while Monkey was giving noncommittal answers to their pointless questions and wishing that she could get back to Alroy, so that these people could get out of her car.

"I'm 10 thousand."

The boy beside her said, shaking Monkey out of her irritated thoughts as he stuck out a gauche hand and smiled kind of clumsily. Monkey nodded, her hand wrapping around his fingers as she shook them quickly; watching him in the hazy blue glow of the evo's LED interior, as he stared at them for a long time.

With his brows furrowed she thought he looked as if he was wondering if he had contracted some kind of disease from a single touch. (She was wrong.)

Monkey frowned and turned away from him.

10k was actually wondering if her icy temperature was not actually due to being exposed to the storm for so long, but actually because she was made of metal. (He was not wrong.)

"You're really cold." He said finally after several moments.

Her bony, jacket clad shoulders lifted in a shrug.

"Coldblooded."

They were in silence again for some time, the only sounds being the hum of the car engine and the occasional left or right from Monkey as she gave directions.

Cassandra and Addy had started talking among themselves; knowing they wouldn't find a conversation in the girl in the backseat.

There was fumbling beside her, and she pulled herself away from watching the sky out the window and over to 10k. He was shuffling in his seat, removing his coat and then pulling his arms out of the mottled dark hoodie he was wearing underneath. It took her a while to realise that he was handing it to her.

"Here I, uh I don't need it, I mean you can wear it, if you want, y'know to keep yourself warm."

Her mouth parted open and she had to blink several times. Monkey wasn't sure if he was blushing or if it was her cyborg eyes playing tricks on her still.

Somehow she found herself accepting the hoodie and removing her damp denim jacket, which she dropped to the floor and and traded for the soft cotton material. If he had would he realise it was from a skin graft to conceal her metallic limb? Paranoid she pulled down the sleeves so they swallowed up her hands and avoided eye contact as she mumbled a thank you.

It wouldn't make a difference; the hoodie. Whether she was wearing a parka and a turtleneck or a bikini didn't matter, at the end of the day she would still remain as cold as an arctic climate. She wondered if 10k noticed the scar tissue around her wrist that was considerably paler than the rest of her tanned self. From the corner of her eye Monkey saw what might have been a small smile on Ten thousands face, or maybe she was seeing things again. She decided that maybe, just maybe she'd like to get to know him and his friends more.

"Monkey."

She told him, and his feature pulled up in confusion.

"My name- it's Monkey, well it's what you can call me anyways."

Realisation and acceptance settled on the boys features and he nodded, smile widening.

"I'm 10k."

A bubble traveled up her throat and pushed past her lips in a light, bell-like sound. _Did she just laugh?_ The thought left her mind and she turned her attention back to the boy with the dark hair.

"I know, you already said." Her tone was lighter, teasing and she smiled- actually smiled at him.

"Oh, yea right."

10k laughed abashedly, scratching his ear as he shrunk back a little. His face turned a brighter shade of read when he became aware that Cassandra and Addy's conversation had stopped; they had been listening to the two in the back.

Aware of this fact too, Monkey quietened, focusing on her dud leg and rubbing it down as if the friction would help it to move. (It wouldn't, because the problem was internal, waterlogged components or blackened wires probably.)

Then she lifted her head to the window, her shoulders slightly tensed but a smile on her face.

"Stop the car. We're here."


End file.
